"Hunt for treasure comes up empty in India" by Biswajeet Banerjee | Associated Press, November 16, 2013
LUCKNOW, India — India has ended a search for treasure beneath a 19th century fort after finding only a few bones and terracotta bricks but none of the gold predicted by a Hindu holy man’s dream, an official said Friday.
The search began Oct. 18 in Uttar Pradesh state in northern India after Hindu swami Shobhan Sarkar told a government minister that a former king appeared to him in a dream and told him of a nearly $50 billion cache.
The leader of the dig, Praveen Kumar Mishra, said the hunt had been suspended. The government spent $25,300 on digging at the site, said Durga Shankar, a local magistrate.
They wasted money on that with all the poverty and hunger in India?
The opposition said the government search was triggered by the holy man’s dream. However, the Geological Survey of India has said it found signs of heavy metal about 66 feet underground.
Mishra said Friday that the geological report appeared to have been wrong.
Sort of what happened at Treblinka, which also seems to have come from a bunch of crazy old men.
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Also see: Globe Grab Bag: Indian Items
They didn't give us any Gandhi.
"Tribes misusing millions in federal funds, audits show" by Justin Pritchard | Associated Press, October 07, 2013
ETHETE, Wyo. — American Indian tribes have been caught misappropriating tens of millions of taxpayer dollars, according to internal tribal audits and other documents. But federal authorities do little about it, due to a lack of oversight, resources, or political will.
The result? Poor tribes like the Northern Arapaho of Wyoming suffer.
One Arapaho manager pocketed money meant to buy meals for tribal elders. Another used funds from the reservation’s diabetes program to subsidize personal shopping trips. And other members plundered the tribal welfare fund, then gambled the money away at one of the tribe’s casinos.
See what those things do to people?
Altogether, employees drained at least a half-million dollars from the coffers of a tribe whose members have a median household income of about $16,000 a year.
Federal agencies questioned millions more dollars the Northern Arapaho government spent, but decided not to recover any of the money — and even increased funding to the tribe.
The Wyoming tribe is hardly unique.
An Associated Press review of summaries of audits shows that serious concerns were consistently raised about 124 of 551 tribal governments, schools, or housing authorities that received at least 10 years of substantial federal funds since 1997.
Fraud and theft occur across the range of nonprofits and local governments that get federal money.
But tribes are five times as likely as other recipients of federal funds to have ‘‘material weaknesses’’ that create an opportunity for abuses, according to the review.
Overall, 1 in 4 audits concluded that tribal governments, schools, or housing authorities had a material weakness in their federally funded programs; the rate was 1 in 20 for nontribal programs.
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I'm not endorsing fraud against taxpayers in any form; however, the audits always seem to hit the people without power while Wall Street and the war profiteers escape $cot free.
When the Federal Reserve is audited and the banker's mouthpiece gives it attention then I'll sit up and take notice.
As for the Native American Indians, an apology is in order for the Holocaust visited upon your nations and tribes. Sorry.
